# A World of Difference: Divergent Word Interpretations among People

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.02859 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.02859/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 8 Mar 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Theoretical foundations and limits of word embeddings: what types of meaning can they capture?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10413/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Divergent word usages reflect differences among people. In this paper, we present a novel angle for studying word usage divergence -- word interpretations. We propose an approach that quantifies semantic differences in interpretations among different groups of people. The effectiveness of our approach is validated by quantitative evaluations. Experiment results indicate that divergences in word interpretations exist. We further apply the approach to two well studied types of differences between people -- gender and region. The detected words with divergent interpretations reveal the unique features of specific groups of people. For gender, we discover that certain different interests, social attitudes, and characters between males and females are reflected in their divergent interpretations of many words. For region, we find that specific interpretations of certain words reveal the geographical and cultural features of different regions.